STATE HOUSE ROUNDUP -- Blame it on the rain

One early poll does not make a congressman. But it can help shape the narrative of a race.

By Matt Murphy STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE

A recap and analysis of the week in state government.

One early poll does not make a congressman. But it can help shape the narrative of a race.

That's what happened last week when UMass-Lowell released the first independent poll in the 3rd Congressional District, turning an amorphous collection of Democrats from the Merrimack Valley vying to succeed U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas into a more clearly defined field.

The timing of the poll -- on a miserably cold and rainy school vacation week when Beacon Hill went largely silent -– only helped draw attention to the sleepy race that so far has been a collection of grumbles about the size of the cast (13 Democrats) and quarterly fundraising reports.

Dan Koh, the former chief of staff to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, has notably been the king of those fundraising reports, raking in more than $2.5 million since he left City Hall last summer and amassing a war chest that some Senate candidates might be jealous of. But his fourth-place poll position had to be disappointing for the first-time candidate, who until now had brought all the buzz to the race, but apparently little of the sting.

Instead, it was former Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford, a one-time fundraiser for former President Barack Obama, who earned the coveted headline, and the momentum, volunteers and cash that inevitably come with being a perceived front-runner.

Gifford, who is not from the district but settled in Concord after returning from Copenhagen, finished at the top of the heap in the poll, but with just 11 percent support.

It might have been more important to just finish in the top tier in this poll than to win it. After all, nearly 60 percent of likely Democratic voters in the district said they hadn't made up their mind. But winning doesn't hurt.

It also puts a target on Gifford's back. State Sen. Barbara L'Italien finished second behind Gifford with 7 percent, and if not for the fact that she had previously released her own internal poll claiming 19 percent and double the support of her closest competitor, it would have been a solid result.

Instead, it prompted L'Italien campaign manager Dan Hoffer to dismiss the poll, in not so many words, and stand by their internal numbers.

The top five was rounded out by Westford consultant and the self-styled Lowell candidate Lori Trahan, Koh and Lawrence Rep. Juana Matias -- all of which will be informative as UML and the Boston Globe put together the rosters for the two debates they plan to hold April 29.

The poll, of course, focused on likely Democratic primary voters, but that didn't mean there wasn't very good news embedded in the results for Gov. Charlie Baker. Eighty percent of respondents said they approved of the job the Republican was doing as governor, including 40 percent who "strongly approved."

Numbers like those among Democrats and independents have to be disheartening for the three Democrats running for governor this cycle and the party, who spent last week trying to hang the scandals surrounding the State Police around Baker's neck.

Democratic Party Chairman Gus Bickford and Setti Warren, a candidate for governor, both called on the Legislature to appoint an independent commission to investigate State Police management after it was disclosed last week that the law enforcement agency's payroll director had allegedly stolen almost $24,000 from the department.

The civilian, Denise Ezekiel of Holbrook, has been on unpaid leave since November when the alleged theft was first detected, but it's just the latest in a series of black eyes for the department, and Baker did not get any head nods when he called it "good news" that the State Police had ferreted out the theft themselves and were dealing with it.

"I'm worried that the governor has lost the necessary perspective to supervise this scandal-plagued agency," Warren said.

Baker tried to take full responsibility April 19 when asked on the radio by Jim Braude whether he is to blame, but it came with a caveat.

"Stuff that goes on on my watch belongs to me, and what I would hope people would do would respect the fact that I can't possibly know everything about everything, but that once issues are raised we will do whatever we can to fix them and address them," Baker said. "I've said many times that I don't think blame serves a lot of purposes."

So far, the Legislature has largely accepted that rationale. Baker and State Police Superintendent Col. Kerry Gilpin are pursing a number of reforms, and House leaders have proposed a few additional oversight options that will be debated as part of the annual budget.

Speaking of which, House leaders quietly spent the week reviewing some 1,400 amendments as they put together a battle plan for this week's budget debate. While the focus will be on the House, the Senate didn't want to fully cede the spotlight to its sibling, so leaders teed up two measure dealing with veterans and credit protection.

Likely with an eye toward wrapping it up before Memorial Day, the Senate will vote on a bill that would allow municipalities to designate reserved veterans' parking spaces at city and town halls and designate a Gold Star Wives Day in April and a Gold Star Mothers and Families Day in September. Burial expenses for indigent veterans covered by the state would also double from $2,000 to $4,000, under the legislation.

It's in keeping with the Legislature's penchant for timing veteran's benefit bills to the spring and fall celebrations of Memorial Day and Veterans Day.

The second bill eyed by the Senate came out of the Equifax data breach and would prohibit credit reporting agencies from charging consumers to place a security freeze on their credit.

Rep. Thomas Calter probably won't be around long enough to see any of the aforementioned bills become law, because he is now expected to resign sometime after the budget debate to become the next town administrator of Kingston. His departure will bring the number of vacancies in the House to four.

As if the Legislature didn't have enough on its plate for the final months of formal session this year, the Supreme Judicial Court gave it something else to think about last week.

The state's top court, partially piggybacking off a Supreme Court ruling, struck down the state's ban on civilian ownership of stun guns. Possession of stun guns is protected under the Second Amendment, Chief Justice Ralph Gants wrote in the opinion, kicking the issue back to the House and Senate to sort out.

While stun guns will become legal to own, they will completely unregulated unless the Legislature acts to bring them in line with other firearms, which require licenses.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo said he hopes to file legislation within 60 days to address the ruling.